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The music business is stuck in the ’80s.
A hefty dose of nostalgia last year led to a 32.7 percent jump in sales of music recorded during the decade that gave us synth pop and big shoulder pads.
While it’s no surprise that sales of music from the current decade are up 29 percent, songs from the 2000s fell 18.2 percent in 2012, according to Nielsen, which keeps track of the top-selling decades based on digital track sales.
The deaths of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson likely contributed to the ’80s revival. Houston’s death just before the Grammys last February immediately propelled sales of hits such as “I Will Always Love You,” and “Dance with Somebody.” She sold 101,000 albums in the week after her death.
Overall music sales hit an all-time high in 2012, suggesting that the growth of subscription streaming services such as Spotify isn’t hurting sales.
Music unit sales — including CDs, digital downloads and videos — hit 1.66 billion last year, up 3 percent. The pace was slower than the 6.9 percent growth in 2011, following a decline in 2010.
Adele’s “21” was the best-selling album of the year, marking the first time an album has topped the charts for two years straight. The top-selling digital download was Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” while Katy Perry was the most prominent artist on the airwaves, according to Nielsen.
In terms of music formats, CD sales fell 13.5 percent in 2012, while digital album sales grew 14.1 percent. The popularity of retro vinyl continued its upward trajectory, with sales up 17.7 percent, on top of last year’s 36 percent increase.
By genre, there was bad news for jazz fans, with sales off 26.2 percent. Demand for classical albums wasn’t much better, down 20.5 percent.
“The downturn in jazz is huge,” said Patrick Jarkowsky, manager of the Tunes music store in Hoboken, NJ.
“No one seems to care. It’s a shame because it’s America’s music. Perhaps people just don’t get it. It’s more of an effort to listen to it; people don’t want the challenge.”
He said just a few years ago he could rely on selling classical albums, but now he’s marking them down.